The Forgotten Light

10. Darksen

"What are you going to do? What are you getting yourself into?" he cursed himself.

He walked slowly down the winding staircase, with his father's malicious cackling still ringing in his ears.

"Excellent," Thandor finally said. "I would now like to talk to my son for a while."

Arvy straightened up surprised that this was the end of the conversation. "Will this human face trial for the death of my brother, Lord?"

"Of course. No one can inflict death on an Invicta Being and live without suffering the consequences."

Arvy bowed low and left. Darksen waited for the oak door to slam and then sipped his wine. The dark wolf and his father did not take their night-black eyes off him.

"I wonder, Darksen, why did you give this miserable creature hope for any life?"

He silently put the cup down on the cabinet next to him and answered the question with a question "Have you already passed sentence on her, father?"

"Yes."

"Since I defeated her and decided her fate, she belongs to me. I also told you that this human being is different from the others."

"I know the rules of hunting - you take a captive, then the captive serves you for the rest of their life and you can do whatever you like with them. But I'm afraid it's different in this case, no matter how special the girl is. Arvy demands justice for his fallen brother, and he is right. I'm sorry, Darksen, but on your next hunt you will have to find yourself a servant who has not killed any of my soldiers before."

"So why don't you send your men to settle the matter right away? What punishment do you condemn her to?"

King Thandor stroked the wolf's muzzle, laughed heartily, then sent him a predatory look. "We'll wait until Kendra gets her on her feet. After that, I sentence her to the arena."

Darksen had to be careful not to show his indignation. The loss of his friend pained him, but...

"Slaves have always been drawn to these fights."

"As we both agreed, this case is different."

The Prince snorted quietly. He knew that he would not win against his father. There was also no point in stubbornly defending the girl, unless he also wanted to pass the King's sentence on himself.

"You are the righteous judge, father. I cannot question your authority. Send the girl to the arena, if that will bring justice for Roge's death."

"That's not all, Darksen," he stopped him before leaving.

The Prince turned slowly to his father. He saw with trepidation that his father was plotting something vile that would probably have to do with Darksen.

"I will not be the one to send the girl to the arena. That decision will be yours. You will be the one to choose her last day."

Darksen, trying to remain indifferent, bowed to his father and left the room.

He hated his life.

He couldn't stand the constant feeling that he didn't belong there. He hated that he was so different from his kind.

And most of all, he hated the fact that he was hiding from it all. He was already tired of it. If only he was brave enough to stop being what everyone expected him to be.

Sometimes he looked at his father and wondered, who is this man? Who is everyone around him?

He didn't want to feel the compassion that none of his brothers had.

He didn't want to feel the grief that tore his heart apart, while the Invicta didn't seem to know it.

If only he could stop feeling anything, everything would be easier. His father had always said: "It's much easier to hate than to love, so why waste your strength?"

To love - what does that even mean?

Darksen crossed the alley and pushed open the hospital door, thus jolting himself out of his run of frantic and annoying thoughts. He walked down the stairs to Kendra's office and immediately spotted her. She was sitting at a large desk, leaning over the files of her human patients. She stood up quickly and bowed as soon as she saw him.

"Prince, I didn't expect to see you here so soon."

"I have a moment to spare, so I've decided to stop by."

He looked through the one-way mirror at the sleeping girl, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Kendra hiding a file under other papers. When he turned back to her, he saw terror written on her pale face. Darksen hated the fear in the eyes of people who were in his presence. While it gave others a sense of predominance, he felt strange, impossible to accept.

"How is your new patient doing?" He asked quietly, subconsciously forcing her to tell the truth.

Kendra looked at him as if she was enchanted when she answered "The girl knows very little about her situation. I managed to have a brief conversation with her, but she is very weakened."

He nodded, directing his gaze back to the mirror. "What is her condition?"

"Her head is bruised. One rib on the right side is fractured, but it's not as bad as it may seem. With modern medication, it will set up to a week. The collarbone is worse - the continuity of the bone has been broken, and the quadriceps muscle is quite badly damaged. The bone will set back, but the girl may have problems lifting her arm and even moving her head. The subclavian artery, fortunately, was not cut, although she still lost a lot of blood, which worries me since we don't have blood to do transfusions. Other than that, a lot of bruising and scratches. I hooked her up to an IV and also gave her morphine, so she's calm and pain-free."

"Did you manage to find out her name?"

He was fighting with himself, asking this question. After all, he knew perfectly well that the girl's fate was already sealed in advance. So why bother with a name?

He was curious, however, about Kendra's reaction, who nervously adjusted the green scarf on her head.

"Yes," she replied briefly, reluctantly. She stared ahead, clenching her teeth tightly, as if she didn't want to say anything anymore, as if she had managed to resist the Prince's charm.

"What is it then?"

"I can't tell."

"Interesting," he muttered. "Whose order is more important, hers or mine?"

"Yours, Prince, however, the promise I gave her is stronger than anyone's order," she said with difficulty, resisting him.

The Prince looked at her with curiosity, then moved the pages with which the girl covered the new file. In the top corner there was a neatly written name.

"As always, you are a very loyal friend, Kendra," he said to the terrified girl. He didn't blame her for her audacity. He felt admiration for this human being. "Don't worry, this little secret is safe with me. Let me know when she wakes up."

The girl watched him, stunned and amazed, as he walked away.